Topic: Tascam DR-70D 4-channel audio recorder for DSLR cameras

[2manyrocks]

Nice recording.  It sort of makes it hard to judge how much of it is the 70d vs. the FP24. 

A premod comparison of the stock 70d and an after mod would be awesome.  I'm guessing there is more room to work to modify one of the 60ds, but I suppose the circuits are enough different that the 70d is the one to mod???

This whole thread is creating a dilemna for me.  Do I buy a used SD7xx or a Tascam 70D?  $300 vs. $1,000 or more.  The SD will have better metering, but is the audio from the 70d comparable or is the SD still in another league?

[Cheesecadet]

Nice recording.  It sort of makes it hard to judge how much of it is the 70d vs. the FP24. 

A premod comparison of the stock 70d and an after mod would be awesome.  I'm guessing there is more room to work to modify one of the 60ds, but I suppose the circuits are enough different that the 70d is the one to mod???

This whole thread is creating a dilemna for me.  Do I buy a used SD7xx or a Tascam 70D?  $300 vs. $1,000 or more.  The SD will have better metering, but is the audio from the 70d comparable or is the SD still in another league?

With the mod done Jim refers to it as a poor man's Sound Devices with sound in the very high quality arena FWIW.  For $300 Bucks, $25 in upgraded components, and someone with the technical know how it seems to be a no brainer to me.  I would love to buy a SD deck but it won't happen in this lifetime so this is the next best thing for me.

[voltronic]

Nice recording.  It sort of makes it hard to judge how much of it is the 70d vs. the FP24. 

A premod comparison of the stock 70d and an after mod would be awesome.  I'm guessing there is more room to work to modify one of the 60ds, but I suppose the circuits are enough different that the 70d is the one to mod???

This whole thread is creating a dilemna for me.  Do I buy a used SD7xx or a Tascam 70D?  $300 vs. $1,000 or more.  The SD will have better metering, but is the audio from the 70d comparable or is the SD still in another league?

I'm in exactly the same boat, but wondering if I'm going to really going to have to move to a 7 series to get better recordings than my current FP24 > M10.

[willndmb]

I know I'm in the minority but a lot of mics I don't like with the 7xx series
Dpa is my fav by far

Cheesecadet, start part 2

[Ozpeter]

A premod comparison of the stock 70d and an after mod would be awesome.

If you mean a recording, almost impossible to do, accurately and meaningfully.  Probably harder than actually doing the mod!  Of course bench tests would be simpler but then you have to decide whether better figures would translate into evidently better sound.

[2manyrocks]

My logic may be faulty, but it would seem that the pres in the FP24 would be close to the SD7xx series, and once you put it in the signal chain, things should be fairly close.  If you take the FP24 out of the signal chain and just go straight into the 70d, does the FP24 add much to the recording or are the preamps in the 70d such that the FP24 doesn't add much except flavor to taste? 

Confused by Ozpeter's last post.  Why not playback a known recording on known monitors, record the sound with a particular set of mics before the mod and the same mics after the mod?  That would seem a better before and after than no before and after? 

And to make it all more pertinent, if the 70d really does bring near SD quality for $300, the savings can go towards mics that really might make a more significant difference in overall recording quality and avoid having any external preamps in the chain (except to the extent one just likes the flavor).  I don't want to spend any more than I have to.

[Cheesecadet]

I like the good, clean gain, and flavor of the FP24.  The reason for me modding the Tascam is to get the quietest possible deck and more top end detail.

The Tascam unit stock sounds very good.

I don't know how to start a new thread or I would have by now.  Maybe someone else can do that?

[Ozpeter]

Confused by Ozpeter's last post.  Why not playback a known recording on known monitors, record the sound with a particular set of mics before the mod and the same mics after the mod?  That would seem a better before and after than no before and after? 

That method (which of course I've used recently) is fine for giving an indication of obvious differences between devices (such as built in mics which can be expected to sound quite different on inexpensive recorders), but if I heard  a difference between modded and unmodded recorders on such a test, my first suspicion would be that the test was faulty rather than that there was a significant difference between the recorders.  For instance, the setup would have to be very carefully replicated in all respects, including very precise placement of the mics in the room.

Actually a better test - at least one that I'd be more impressed by, fwiw - would be to feed a line input at reduced level into the mic inputs before and after (Mackie mixers for instance used to provide an optional mic level output).  Under those conditions, the recording should sound pretty much identical to the original test file (if the test was done correctly) and it might even be possible to obtain some indication of the unmodded and modded difference by inverting the before and after recordings against the test file.  Of course you wouldn't expect a null inversion, but you might - perhaps - get something which would reinforce what your ears were telling you (bearing in mind that your ears might be convincing you that the mod was better even if it wasn't).

When I think of all the posts on all the forums were mods to recorders are discussed, it makes me deeply suspicious that as far as I have seen, nobody has really tried any such test to prove the differences - and also to eliminate the possibility that (for instance) a modded recorder which appeared to offer an improved HF response wasn't actually simply providing an exaggerated HF response.  It's essential to be sure that the result of a mod is a more accurate recording, rather than just a more sexy sounding recording which could equally have been created in post production with a bit of eq or whatever.

You can probably detect that this subject is one of my many obsessions...

[leehookem]

I don't know how to start a new thread or I would have by now.  Maybe someone else can do that?

Here ya go...

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=172109.0